I voted for the education system. I have heard stories from some of my Japanese friends about the entrance exams system in all Japanese universities and that attending yuku school during weekend or evenings during week is a must. I don't understand why Japanese high school isn't sufficient enough to get entrance to a university. In Belgium, you can go for any degree (except if you want to become a dentist or specialise in medicine, these are one of the few degrees where you do need to pass an entrance exam) in any college/university. So either Japanese high school is from a poor level, or universities in Japan are from a very high level. But again from what I have heard, universities in Japan tend to be rather 'easy' ?

It must be frustrating for Japanese students to 'waste' so many hours in high school and to know that's not even enough to get yourself a university ticket. Some students even have school on saturday which only give them one day of rest.

Though I must say, I like the system of club activities after school in Japan. It's a great way to stimulate students to do sports or play an instrument. This is more or less the same case in the USA but in Belgium (and maybe a big part of Europe in general) this is not the case.

Some other things bothering me: the fact that if a Japanese person sees me he/she immediatly thinks im Americain. It's like there's only one 'great' country out there which is called 'America', while we all know Europe has a bether social wellfare system but ofcourse you don't see those things in movies. So I could also vote for the 'ignorance to the rest of the world' part of the poll, but im probably accepting cause the USA has the same problem. When I met someone outside of Europe and we are talking about politics, geography and etc. I always think that only students in Europe learn about the history of the USA, China and Africa. That is just a feeling though.